Tanzi Propst/Park Record
Sundance Film Festival 2021 will be like no other.
Instead of screenings in theaters throughout town and panel discussions with filmmakers, composers and actors in the Filmmaker’s Lodge on Main Street, programming for the festival, which starts Thursday, will be virtual.
Festival organizers, under the leadership of new Festival Director Tabitha Jackson, decided to reimagine the festival, centered around an online platform, due to the coronavirus concerns last spring.
“The question was to what extent could we gather live and in person, and that is where we needed to be at our most flexible and responsive right up until the last moment,” Jackson said in an email question-and-answer exchange with The Park Record. “As we continued to keep close tabs on the rising rates of COVID-19 in Utah, we made the difficult decision in December to reduce our in-person Festival footprint in Park City this year.”